It has varied greatly over the years. Currently, zero. Unless you count their brothers and sisters whom they live with here. Then, it's 24hours. Unless they go out into the woods by themselves. Which each one of them makes time to do every day. But our youngest is now 17yo. You're probably thinking younger kids? Ds's did a variety of sports up until they were in their early to mid-teens. Since I had to take all 5 dc to all ds's games and practices, and I never just dropped them off - I always stayed and watched - all 5 dc saw other kids frequently. But we didn't get a whole lot of school done ... Kathy ETA: I just asked dc if they miss spending time with people their own ages every week. Response: "Uh, no. In fact, I don't even think about it."

Cake. GOOD cake. :001_wub: I usually have to make it myself to get it; thus, no danger of eating it except on the occasional holiday or birthday. Krispy Kreme donuts. Need I say more? :drool5::drool: (They're supposed to be drooling, but they look kinda gross, don't they? :001_huh:) And, finally, Whippets (or the lesser Mallomars, when they're 'in season' here). I tasted Whippets for the first time a few years ago up in Baltimore when visiting 35yos and dil. Wow. But I've never seen Whippets down here, and the Mallomars left early this year. (The Mallomar people refuse to ship them down South in hot weather. Guess they never heard of REFRIGERATION!! :confused:)

Yes, our dc do this. It's strange because I notice their pronounciations resemble what they learned in Latin, sometimes. Other times, it's just plain screwy. I can't help but laugh. Sometimes, I tell them they'll have an excellent education, but nobody will know it because they won't be able to figure out what they're saying. :lol: I'm just joking, of course. And they know that. I do correct mispronounciations, too. And sometimes they tell me I'M wrong and get the dictionary out to prove it. :001_huh:

We haven't been to a church in years. We searched for one here, attended one for about a year, and finally gave up. I really was just trying to find a church which taught the Bible, verse by verse. And a pastor who spent time actually studying the Bible before he taught it. (vs telling tear-jerker stories, reading poems, pressuring the congregation to give more money, reading the study notes straight from a study Bible, etc., as a substitute for study and good solid Bible exposition) And I have yet to find a church which practices church discipline as commanded in the NT. So we study at home. We've made it a part of our daily lives. We all have our individual Bible study time and prayer. Then, we've always done various group things over the years. We listen to 2 different preachers via radio and CD's. We discuss off and on all day. We intertwine our Bible with everything else we're learning - science, GB's, lit, art, music, etc. We apply what we learn to everyday life involving ourselves, other people, situations, and so on. We share what we've learned when appropriate. Much discussion is a key factor. I'm not sure I would have even thought of that had I been able to find a church. It's all worked out well for our family thus far.

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I usually take some of my dc and my Chihuahua when I walk. The conversation helps pass the time and my dog is entertaining to watch. I can't take my dog in bad weather, however. She's tiny and gets cold in very cold weather. Can you walk with various ones in your family at different times? Not in a rigid scheduled way; but in a 'I'm going walking. Anybody want to go?' kind of way? That's what works for me. And I don't stress out if I miss walking. I walk when I can. Oh, you might want to invest in a nice umbrella or two for walking in the rain. And maybe some kind of hat for the sun (or bugs) in the hot months. And for winter, I have an old down coat and several different weights of gloves to choose from. I also buy those hunter-orange knit hats from Wal Mart to wear in winter, too. And I made myself a bug fan by cramming some wild turkey feathers into the end of a stick and gluing them. I use it to fan the gnats away from my face as I walk during gnat season. I also sometimes spray a little Cutter on my shoes and ankles during tick season. You can do it. Just try to look at your walk as a time to enjoy nature and clear your head. Listen to the birds; stop and watch the bugs; talk to the person you're walking with about whatever interests them and you; etc. If you draw or paint, it's nice to look for interesting things to take home for that. We have one spot where we always stop to look up at the sky and the view, and to soak up some Vitamin D. :) One ds is always bringing home a new rock on his walks. We always talk about the seasons, too. It's fun to notice the changing seasons. HTH Kathy

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We use this one and like it. http://www.amazon.com/Merriam-Websters-Encyclopedia-World-Religions-Doniger/dp/0877790442

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To get our kids to eat salads when they were young, I let them eat with their hands. Seriously. Instead of ripping all the ingredients up, I would put things like this on their plates when I fixed them: a whole lettuce leaf whole grape tomatoes smallish carrot sticks cucumber slices and whatever else I happened to have - as whole as I could keep it I found they would get frustrated trying to stab the slippery (dressing) sliced ingredients; but they would eat almost anything if they could pick it up with their hands to eat it. We all still do this. When we fix a plate of food, we often tear off a leaf of lettuce or grab some fresh baby spinach and throw it onto our plates, along with all the other fixin's. We just don't do this in front of anyone outside our family. :D

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We've had both. Metal eventually rusts. And the looks - same as other posters. If wood is painted with a good primer and paint, you only have to do it every 5-10 years. Plus, it's fun to experiment with the colors. And you could let young dc paint it for fun. Call it an art project for hs. ;) Not to mention the practice it will give them for painting the whole house one day. :D

On the flip side, we were running errands one Tuesday (Senior's discount day at a lot of stores) and I commented to dc that they should make some of those magnetic signs like we have for "Student Driver". Only they should say "Senior Driver", so I can see'em coming. My dil, a policewoman, was telling us to watch out for the Senior drivers. She said Tuesdays was a dangerous day at the grocery store. They regularly got calls for wrecks on that day. :tongue_smilie:

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I'd say it really depends on the individual kid. You could always go through the WS books and then do another program after that if you feel like they need more writing instruction. ETA: We had our dc do more than one program because they went through WS quickly. WS didn't provide quite enough practice, IMO.

All our dc did all the ABeka grammar books, no matter how long it took. I didn't "teach" them. In fact, by this stage of grammar (high school levels), they even did their own correcting. I found a sentence diagramming program to use with them as a group for a review. I liked this because it forced them to use all they'd learned from their grammar program to diagram the sentence. They also enjoyed it. It was a pleasant break from the more difficult subjects.

Tell her there's definitely a market out there. At least in our neck of the woods. When I bake something VERY ordinary (to me, anyway) and give it away, I'm always stunned at the reactions. I can send some ordinary ole lemon bars down to the neighbors and they think I'm some kind of genius of a baker .... :blink:. Once, I baked a bunch of stuff for our neighbor to take somewhere. The chef who was catering the event tasted some of it and wanted me to bake desserts for his restaurant. :blink::blink: I said no thanks - didn't want to spend my days in the kitchen. I gave him all the recipes instead. I figure homemade baked goods are so RARE these days, people have forgotten how good they are until they taste them. Your dd will have a great business. I hope you're teaching her how to handle money and run a business .... she's gonna need it. :D

I let him sleep as long as he wants to throughout the weekend. I think if I did some of the things posted here my dh might drop dead of a heart attack. :lol: (Not talking about the teA, of course.) Did I mention he's the romatic one and I'm NOT?? ;)

I said so-so. For me, it's not really a question of knowing. It's more an issue of my mother being biased. She always favored and preferred her sons. I'm her only daughter. She chooses to see her sons in the most favorable light to the point of denying her oldest was a drug addict; meanwhile, concocting many lies about me and spreading them to my father, brothers, relatives, anybody who would listen. Very sad. But that's who she is. At 53yo (my mother is now 78yo), I rarely think about it anymore. She cut off contact with me and my family about 10 years ago. And, in an odd kind of way, it's been better for our family. She was very much into sabotaging our parenting and way of life every time I turned around. So, yes, she may know something about my personality just because she raised me. But, no, she really doesn't 'know' me, because she refuses to really 'see' me. And at this point in my life, I really don't care anymore. I still pray for her, sure. But what's to miss? Kathy

I would.

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I'm glad you liked them. I can't take credit for the recipe and I forgot to include the source. It came from drmcdougall.com. Thanks again. :001_smile: